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An Amazing 2022, with all meetings Hybrid: Zoom & In-Person. Why not become a COFW Member?
1/15/2022
January
Date: January 15th 2022
Time: Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm
Location:
Zoom meeting and Hope Hotel (Building #823 in Area A), conference meeting room TBD, 10823 Chidlaw Rd., Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH 45433
Speaker: Priscilla Oliveras
Topic: Balancing Emotion and Pacing for Unforgettable Fiction
Guest speaker Priscilla Oliveras will discuss emotion and pacing in fiction. As authors we know that emotion is the key to engaging readers in the story, but we’re often urged to trim backstory and inner dialogue to focus on driving the story forward. This presentation provides practical tips to get that critical emotion on the page without bogging down your story.
Time: Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm
Location:
Zoom meeting and Hope Hotel (Building #823 in Area A), conference meeting room TBD, 10823 Chidlaw Rd., Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH 45433
Speaker: Priscilla Oliveras
Topic: Balancing Emotion and Pacing for Unforgettable Fiction
Guest speaker Priscilla Oliveras will discuss emotion and pacing in fiction. As authors we know that emotion is the key to engaging readers in the story, but we’re often urged to trim backstory and inner dialogue to focus on driving the story forward. This presentation provides practical tips to get that critical emotion on the page without bogging down your story.
2/19/2022
February
Date: February 19th 2022
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm
Location:
Zoom meeting and The Forge Tavern 1375 Bethel Road, Columbus, OH 43220
Speaker: Brian D. Meeks
Topic: Optimizing Amazon Ads
Selling books is hard…
…especially if your prospective buyers don’t read the description.
Do you know how to hook a reader?
Typical descriptions convert at 1:30. That means you have to pay for 30 clicks to get one new reader. That’s expensive. With proper copywriting, you can get that down to 1:8 or better.
Would you rather pay for 8 or 30 clicks?
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm
Location:
Zoom meeting and The Forge Tavern 1375 Bethel Road, Columbus, OH 43220
Speaker: Brian D. Meeks
Topic: Optimizing Amazon Ads
Selling books is hard…
…especially if your prospective buyers don’t read the description.
Do you know how to hook a reader?
Typical descriptions convert at 1:30. That means you have to pay for 30 clicks to get one new reader. That’s expensive. With proper copywriting, you can get that down to 1:8 or better.
Would you rather pay for 8 or 30 clicks?
3/19/2022
March
Date: March 19th 2022
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Community Room at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, Ohio 45459
Facilitator: Shari Heinrich
Topic: Brainstorming
Come with your book ideas, and get ready to brainstorm in small group sessions, each person having a turn to share where they could use group help brainstorming anything. We’re not sure how well this will work with zoom versus in person. In person, we can break into small groups. Zoom, if we have too many zooming, members may need to break into small groups, for example, by using Facebook messenger and setting up a “room.” More to come as we figure this out!
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Community Room at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, Ohio 45459
Facilitator: Shari Heinrich
Topic: Brainstorming
Come with your book ideas, and get ready to brainstorm in small group sessions, each person having a turn to share where they could use group help brainstorming anything. We’re not sure how well this will work with zoom versus in person. In person, we can break into small groups. Zoom, if we have too many zooming, members may need to break into small groups, for example, by using Facebook messenger and setting up a “room.” More to come as we figure this out!
Pictured here is Juliette Hyland, outlining her book Falling Again for the Single Dad, using one of the templates that the workshop provided.
4/16/2022
April
Date: April 16th 2022
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Hilliard Room of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026
Speaker: Kathleen Sweeney
Topic: Book Brush, New Images Authors Need (Kindle Vella, A+ content, Animated email signatures & more)
See how BookBrush can boost your marketing game.
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Hilliard Room of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026
Speaker: Kathleen Sweeney
Topic: Book Brush, New Images Authors Need (Kindle Vella, A+ content, Animated email signatures & more)
See how BookBrush can boost your marketing game.
5/14/2022
May
Date: May 14th 2022
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Community Room at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, Ohio 45459
Speaker: Peggy Jaeger
Topic: Writing the Second Acts Romance
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Community Room at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, Ohio 45459
Speaker: Peggy Jaeger
Topic: Writing the Second Acts Romance
Using humor and life experiences, this workshop will discuss an untapped market in the romance industry: romantic stories with heroines and heroes over the age of 45 for romance readers in the same Baby Boomer age group. We live in a society where life – and romance – doesn’t end at 35.
About our Speaker: Peggy Jaeger is a multi-published contemporary romance author and Registered Nurse who happens to be in the Second Act of her life, so that credo of walking the walk and talking the talk is one she knows intimately.
6/18/2022
June
Date: June 18th 2022
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Meeting Room 2A of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026
Speaker: Olivia Gaines
Topic: Writing Characters of Color
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Meeting Room 2A of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026
Speaker: Olivia Gaines
Topic: Writing Characters of Color
An hour-long workshop which teaches how to seamlessly integrate characters of social and diverse backgrounds into your story. Learn the best methods of describing skin tones, hair textures, and cultural dishes.
Participants will receive a link for a workbook a few days before the course. That link is NOT to be shared with anyone other than participants.
About our Speaker: Olivia is a USA Today Best Selling, Emma Award, and multiple award-winning author who loves a good laugh coupled with some steam, mixed in with a man and woman finding their way past the words of “I love you.”
7/16/2022
July
Date: July 16th 2022
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Southeast Branch Library, 21 Watervliet Avenue, Dayton, OH 45420.
Speaker: Michelle Grajkowski of ThreeSeas Literary Agency
Topic: About Literary Agents–our agent will decide if she talks about what’s hot in romance and takes questions, or just take questions.
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Southeast Branch Library, 21 Watervliet Avenue, Dayton, OH 45420.
Speaker: Michelle Grajkowski of ThreeSeas Literary Agency
Topic: About Literary Agents–our agent will decide if she talks about what’s hot in romance and takes questions, or just take questions.
8/13/2022
August
Date: August 13th 2022
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm for those on ZOOM–we don’t have the meeting room until 12:30. We will hope to slip in earlier if the previous meeting has ended. Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Hilliard Room of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026
Speaker: J.E. Irvin
Topic: ITF Contest Judging
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm for those on ZOOM–we don’t have the meeting room until 12:30. We will hope to slip in earlier if the previous meeting has ended. Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Hilliard Room of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026
Speaker: J.E. Irvin
Topic: ITF Contest Judging
9/17/2022
September
Date: September 17th 2022
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Community Room at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, Ohio 45459
Speaker: Emma Dhesi
Topic: How to Keep your Readers Reading
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Community Room at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, Ohio 45459
Speaker: Emma Dhesi
Topic: How to Keep your Readers Reading
The fear of not being good enough, or finding readers, is very real for many writers. The way to guarantee your story is good enough and that readers fall in love with your novel is to build a strong emotional connect between them and your character. That matters more than anything else.
10/15/2022
October
Date: October 15th 2022
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Hilliard Room of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026
Speaker: Jillian David
Topic: FastDrafting 101
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Hilliard Room of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026
Speaker: Jillian David
Topic: FastDrafting 101
FastDrafting is writing the first draft of the book without stopping (editing) and just getting the ideas and words down on paper. Some websites shoot for getting a book done in one, two, or four weeks with this method. I think it must also depend on the length of the book.
About our Speaker: Jillian is an Award-winning author who lives near the end of the Earth with her nut of a husband and her bossy cats. To escape the sometimes-stressful world of the rural physician, she edits while on call and writes books in her free time. She enjoys taking realistic settings and adding a twist of “what if.” Running or hiking on local trails often promotes plot development as well.
11/19/2022
November
Date: November 19th 2022
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Community Room at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, Ohio 45459
Speaker: Rochelle Bradley
Topic: NaNoWriMo Write-In
Time: Networking at 12:00 pm, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at approx. 1:30 pm
Location: Zoom and Community Room at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, Ohio 45459
Speaker: Rochelle Bradley
Topic: NaNoWriMo Write-In
About our Speaker: Rochelle writes romance with Sass & Shenanigans. She is an award-winning and Amazon best-selling author. Born and raised in Cincinnati Ohio, she developed a love of nature and art. She currently lives in southwest Ohio with her two children, two cats, and her prince. She has been a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) Municipal Liaison for the Dayton Region.
12/3/2022
December
Date: December 3rd 2022
Time: noon
Location: Private Event
Topic: Celebration of all things COFW and writing romance. Awarding pens to our members publishing their first novels, and awarding our member of the year.
Details for this event will be available through the COFW Google Group email
Time: noon
Location: Private Event
Topic: Celebration of all things COFW and writing romance. Awarding pens to our members publishing their first novels, and awarding our member of the year.
Details for this event will be available through the COFW Google Group email